Pay-per-click is one of the most popular models of internet marketing that simply entails paying for your ad to appear alongside organic search results when the relevant keywords are searched. Essentially, instead of your website/webpage appearing organically on the second, third or even later search pages when keywords are searched, PPC pushes it to appear on the first page at the top or bottom of the organic search result. If a user clicks on the ad you are charged per click hence the name Pay-Per-Click.

Why buy visits to your site instead or earning them?

Pay-per-click pushes an Ad to the first search result page alongside organic results. Thus, the ad gives a page a link among the first search result that would be hectic and hard to achieve organically in the midst of stiff competition. Thus it is an efficient way of creating a brand or product awareness. Two when you pay for visits to your site, you spend a little amount of money typically less than $5 per click again depending upon the industry, product and the market.. This may translate into higher profits from buys/consultations amounting to hundreds or thousands of dollars to many businesses that would probably get an insignificant fraction of the profit if they relied entirely on organic traffic. As a result, if paying per click is all your business requires to increase its profit multiple folds then it’s worth every penny.

It is thus essential to improve Pay-Per-Click campaigns to achieve the desired results and get value for your investment. Improving PPC campaigns is all about getting more and most relevant clicks at the lowest cost possible. How do you improve your PPC?

Here are 13 Innovative ways to improve PPC campaigns:

Careful selection of keywords:

Keywords research are among the key factors in PPC as the ads are triggered by the search of matching keywords. Carefully select the keywords that are as specific to your target landing page as possible and select specific keyword match. Avoid ‘broad match’ keywords that only attracts irrelevant traffic, incurring you unnecessary cost. Example: If you are a marketer offering social media marketing services, a general term such as “online marketing services” may display from irrelevant searches search as search engine marketing. In such case, specific terms such as “social media marketing services”, social media marketing firm”, and “social media marketing agency” may be more suitable.

There are several keyword tools search as Keyword Planner of Google AdWords that may be helpful in keyword suggestions, in the discovery of new keywords and in picking the most effective keywords. However, it is essential to also remember rival businesses may also be categorizing on the same keywords from the tools. Sometimes the Keyword planner may not suggest certain keywords related to your business which may be to your advantage as it may mean your rivals aren’t using the keywords in their ads. It may be more fruitful to mix popular relevant keywords suggested by the Keyword Planner and unpopular keywords missing on keyword tools.

Integrating not only short-tail keywords but also long-tail keywords

Most ads use short-tail keywords that are 1-3 words long and usually more generic. For better performance also integrate long-tail keywords that are more specific attracting the most relevant traffic and translating to a higher traffic conversion rate. Long-tail keywords are also relatively less competitive but a higher conversion rate compared to short-tail For example instead of using “women clothes” as keywords, using long-tail keywords such as “women summer tops in Dubai” may get more relevant traffic to a business selling women tops in Dubai.

Performance of Short-tail and Long-tail Keywords (Source: The Rainmakers)

Adopt a value based Ads Copy approach in place of a descriptive approach

Like all other marketing approaches a value-based approach yields a better result. The ad’s keywords should focus on the details and description of the product or service you offer while the Ad’s copy should take a value-based approach. For example, clothes selling boutiques in Dubai may have ‘Women Summer Tops in Dubai” as the Keywords. On the other hand, the Ads Copy may have “Buy silk, machine washable non-fading tops”, “Discount on soft stretchable cotton tops” and “comfortable, weather resistant, breathable, executive cotton fabric underwear” as that is value-based.

A value based and a descriptive based Ads Copy

Develop an all-inclusive PPC

Do not only target newcomers or creating brand/product awareness. Target also later stage of the marketing funnel/returning clients/experienced consumers/those already aware and have an intent to purchase.

Right Timing

Right scheduling is essential and you should time your ads when the most appropriate traffic is online. Capitalize on periods also when your target traffic has the time to contact you, are really in need of your services/products and have money to make purchases as it is the ideal time for higher conversion rate. Vary your bidding price up or down depending on the ideal time and you will realize a significant reduction on your budgeting but a higher conversion rate. Example: Stores selling winter clothes can lower their ads bids during summer, autumn and spring and increase the bid amount at the onset of the winter.

Specifically know your market goal if its quality or quantity and how to strike a balance

Having clear market goals is of utmost importance when it comes to the success of your PPC campaign. Lay out your goals clearly, is it quality you are interested in or quantity? Quantity may be ideal for brand/product awareness where you target reaching as many people as possible, while quality may ideal for already established brands that seek more sales. When interested in quality, clicks capitalizing on negative keywords may be an ideal approach where you limit access to ads by irrelevant traffic such as individual seeking for employment and competitors in the business. If interested in both quality and quantity you have to strike a balance between keywords and negative keywords.

Carefully think through and choose your ad Groups

Take your time and keenly think through your campaign before eventually choosing your ad Groups. Split your Ad Groups into the smallest classes possible to net the most relevant traffic that is most likely to convert. Big categorizations net a significant chunk of irrelevant traffic due to their generality as compared to the smaller more relevant Ad groups that lead to the creation of more targeted ad text and landing pages netting more relevant traffic with a high conversion rate. For example, an ad group of men clothes is too general than an Ad Group of Cotton Shirts for men. Under the Ad Group Men Clothes, you can only fit general ad text also such as men shirts, men jackets, men pants, men inner-wear trying to narrow down to specific would result to the ad losing its relevance. In comparison, under the Ad Group Cotton Shirts for men you can fit more ad text in terms of the color of the shirt, designer, type of the shirt (long sleeved or short sleeved), cleaning compatibility (washable by hand, machine or both), weather compatibility (summer shirts, winter shirts, or all-weather shirts) among other descriptive/qualitative characteristics without losing the ad relevance and quality score.

Drop the clicks that do not convert

You may find that your PPC ads are reaching web users that you were not targeting or those that don’t convert. It’s crucial for you to drop search clicks to prevent your business from losing a lot of money on such clicks and concentrate the resources on the best performing ads. This can be done by assigning non-converting clicks to negative keywords e.g.: those looking for free products, looking for employment/hiring/jobs.

Therefore, if your business is not offering free products, assign the term ‘free’ a negative keyword. Similarly, if you are not offering jobs, assign “employment’’, “hiring” and “jobs” to negative keywords.

IP Exclusion

Ads are usually clicked by numerous user that include potential customers/clients, accidental clicks and malicious clicks among others. To optimize your PPC by void malicious clicks that only incurs you cost without conversions such as click frauds committed by malicious competitors, users from far places outside a company market reach, or malicious-nonhuman bot traffic among other. Eliminate all clicks that are not from potential or intending buyers/consumers by excluding their IPs from accessing PPC by utilizing IP Exclusion tools. This will significantly improve your PPC as you will have cut down your budget waste and concentrated the resources on the right traffic.

Creating different mobile ad groups and web ad groups

Mobile devices functionality varies slightly from computers even in their access to the internet. While creating a responsive website that is compatible with both computers and mobile solves plenty much of the problem, computer-based ads may not display and work well as intended on the apps used in mobile devices. It is thus imperative to create separate mobile and web Ad groups for optimal PPC performance. Furthermore, even if the web Ad groups worked on mobile devices they may not necessarily perform as good as they perform on the web as they are not focused or developed with web users’ preferences in mind and vice versa. Google’s device targeting is a useful tool in adjusting Ads for mobile phones and computers.

Set specific locality, language

Location is key in marketing as every company/product has its target market whether local, national or international. Narrowing down an Ad to a specific location ensures it reaches the right geographic target market which translates to improved Ads performance and more conversion. For example, if your business only sells products or provides services in Dubai, then it makes sense to only target people within Dubai and exclude other countries.

Language targeting is another way of narrowing down an Ad to the specific target location. Speakers of a given language are usually concentrated in a given region search as Arabic speakers in the Middle East, American English in America and Swahili in East Africa Language and geographic targeting make your campaign more focused thus reducing unnecessary cost which may ultimately increase your Return on Investment (ROI).

Optimize the landing page

The first experience that visitors get once they land and interact with your web page shapes their attitude and perception of your site largely if they hind to call to action or exit the site. Optimization of the landing page is thus very important to ensure successful conversion of the traffic. More successful conversion translates into a better quality score and consequently better PPC Ads. Optimize your landing page by making it fast loading, easy to navigate, and with a clear call to action. Eliminate distractions such as intrusive pop-ups and too long pages requiring too much scrolling down among others.

Combine PPC with Organic marketing

Do not only capitalize on the Ads also pay as much attention to organic ranking achieved through content optimization. Organic ranking is a long-term investment and a good organic ranking is an assurance to the traffic that an organization is credible and a key player in the specific industry. Website users are also multi times more likely to click on Ads whose organic search results rank among the top in comparison to Ads whose organic search result ranks poor. Organic marketing and PPC though they do not significantly affect each other directly, they supplement each other and used together they can achieve great results.

Conclusion

With the right and well thought through PPC you can achieve a great outcome. Improving your PPC campaign doesn’t entail much but it can be a pain on the neck without proper guidance. By following the described measures above you can be assured of good PPC results. Take a step today and make all the difference, within no time you will be at the top of the game. If you are still stuck you can consult Minds Metricks.